ISDS Case Map
MEFTA
US-Middle East Free Trade Agreement
The new body will work to fully open region's markets to American firms.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has engaged in intensive negotiations with a number of Arab countries to develop bilateral trade agreements which it intends to knit together into a Middle East Free Trade Area by 2013.
The United States said on Thursday that it is pleased with the progress made in this week's trade negotiations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
US Trade Representative Rob Portman, now in his second week on the job, faces numerous challenges as he seeks to build support at home and abroad for an ambitious US trade agenda, observers say.
The Bush administration's plan: to negotiate a series of trade agreements that would eventually fuse one of the world's most economically and politically unstable regions into a giant free-trade zone.
After several years of being blocked, the signing of the EU-GCC FTA seems imminent. At the same time, the US is launching an ambitious proposal for a US-Middle East Free Trade Area in 2013, with Bahrain being the last country to adhere to a list that already includes Morocco and Jordan.
The Bush administration in its second term is continuing its drive for closer economic ties with the Middle East, restarting trade-related talks with Egypt this week and formally opening free-trade agreement negotiations with Oman and the United Arab Emirates next month.
Since the Bush Administration first announced its trade initiative, it has madesubstantial progress in working with MEFTA entities to develop TIFAs, BITs, andFTAs.
Morocco's parliament approved a free-trade accord (FTA) with the United States, paving the way for its implementation in two months and bringing Washington closer to its goal of sealing a free trade agreement covering most of the Middle East and North Africa by 2013.
The purpose of this article is to give an account of the history and some provisions of the US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement and assess the extent to which the FTA provides a viable “model” to the proposed US-Middle East Free Trade Agreement.
